Identifying Mental Illnesses

Provide a psychological evaluation to enable client to have a proper diagnosis and treatment for disorder

Sometimes your doctor may have an individual undergo a mental health assessment, this assessment will evaluate how well you think, reason, remember, written or verbal tests and lab work. An observation of your appearance, mood, memory and your ability to express yourself.

In chapter 3 of Ronald J. Comer’s book, Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology, it explains and defines the importance of the assessment of a client. Along with other topics, it explains many factors and objectives of diagnosis and treatment of clients. The first topic is the importance and purpose of psychological assessment. In order to know what the client is going through, the clinician must know background information of the client. This includes knowing past significant events, discovering who the client, as a person, is, the client’s thoughts, daily life and symptoms that the client is feeling. The clinician uses all of this information, in

The problems can be sudden, such as a panic attack, frightening hallucinations, or thoughts of suicide. On the other side, the issues may be more long-term, such as feelings of sadness, hopelessness, or anxiousness that never seem to lift. Psychiatrists can order or perform a full range of medical, laboratory and psychological tests. That combined with discussions with patients, help provide a picture of a patient's physical and mental state. Their education and clinical training equip them to understand the complex relationship between emotional and other medical illnesses and the relationships with genetics and family history, to evaluate medical and psychological data, to make a diagnosis, and to work with patients to develop treatment

It is an essential stage in differentiating psychiatric from medical issues. Mental state examination, helping to assess the patient's general appearance, cognitive, perceptual pattern, thought process, psychomotor retardation and stereotypes, self injurious behaviour.

Doctors, as well as, medical experts diagnose individuals with what they are thought to be as mental illnesses. But how is a mental illness diagnosed

A person may also be seen clinically for assessment to a diagnosis and treatment, because, a formally constituted instrument of society, such as a court or welfare agency, directs that this occurs. This type of active interaction in the life of a citizen is attempted it can be shown that an individual is a potential danger to himself or to others.Many persons voluntarily seek hospitalization. Mental health professionals role is to incorporate culture in clinical, assessment assist clients in devising decision that is appropriate with their worldview.

Assess severity of disorder and the symptoms he/she are experiencing, determination of the extent of the disorder is important when determining type of treatment

Mental illness can affect different areas of the body. “Abnormal behavior or disturbing feelings, thoughts, or actions that interfere with with everyday functioning constitute mental illness” (“Mental Illness”). This means anything that someone does that someone would not normally do might be a cause of a mental illness. This affects things that someone would do on a day to day basis. “A specific abnormal behavior is referred to as a symptom” (“Mental Illness”). This can cause a person to create an irrational fear of what causes their abnormal behavior. Because of this a person would need to keep an eye on that person to help avoid the situation. Therefore since it was understood what a mental illness was they began to try and treat them.

Psychological evaluation to study and explore thoughts, feelings, relationships, behavior patterns, suicidal thoughts, injury to self or others and family history.

Counselors will often use a symptom checklist to get a sense of their client’s mental health status and to determine if their presenting issues are within the scope of the counselor's practice. If the counselor feels that they are not component to proceed then the counselor may refer the client to another specialist for treatment. Furthermore, counselors can also use personality and psychological assessments to learn more about the attributes, values, beliefs, behaviors, and preferences of their clients in order to help their clients more effectively. Through the use of assessment, counselors are able to get a sense of what developmental, behavioral, and mental disorders their client may be experiencing. Therefore, it is important for counselors to have the adequate training in test administration

When diagnosing mental health issues there must be many appropriate steps taken in order to ensure that the correct step is taken. These steps must start with an evaluation by a doctor or mental health professional. The symptoms and medical history will be the first few areas evaluated. There is no specific laboratory test that can diagnose a mental illness; therefore, there has to be psychological evaluations put in place. A psychiatrist or psychologist could help in specifying a certain mental illness. Psychiatrists and psychologists use specially designed interview and assessment tools to evaluate a person for a mental illness. The doctor will determine the symptoms present and how the symptoms guide that person. The standard manual used by experts for the diagnosis of recognized mental illness in the U.S. is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), which is compiled by the American Psychiatric Association. This manual is used by mental health providers to diagnose mental conditions and by insurance companies to

In this study the examiner will be looking at a subject, and will be collecting information on this subject to help diagnose; and start a treatment plan to help out this individual. In order to find out how to diagnose this individual the examiner is going to use psychological literature, this will help make a decision on what the patient may have or being affected by. The last thing is it will

There has been many strides in the field dedicated to the science supporting mental illness and the diagnosis thereof. Today there exists two widely adopted methodologies to diagnosing and classifying mental disorders amongst psychology and psychiatry professionals. One process; the ICD-10 (International Statistical Classification of Disease), which is maintained by the World Health Organization, was adopted by the United Nations with the introduction of the first section on Mental Health in the 1949 publication of ICD-6. The DSM-5 is the second, it was introduced by the APA (American Psychological Association) in 1952. While both methods of discernment have been greatly useful in furthering the science to aiding those who suffer from mental illness, it is important to note that it is not my intention to deduce any form of resolve that suggests my stance is a claim of fact that the phenomena of mental illness, to include the extensive fields surrounding the mental health sciences, are in any way fictitious or embellished.

Services are based in psychiatric hospitals or in the community, and assessments are carried out by psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and clinical social workers, using various methods but often